Abstract Survey of Invasive, Exotic And
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ABSTRACT SURVEY OF INVASIVE, EXOTIC AND NOXIOUS FLORA FOR U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE AT KENAI NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, KENAI PENINSULA ALASKA By Caleb R Slemmons The increasing awareness and threat of exotic and invasive flora in Alaska necessitated a preliminary survey of exotic plant distribution for the nearly 2 million acre Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in Southcentral Alaska. As a Biological Technician Intern at the Refuge my primary responsibility was to develop, write and begin implementation of a plan to survey exotic, invasive and noxious flora. In addition, I was also involved in various side projects including dendrochronological dating of cabin logs and miscellaneous projects such as snowmachine trail use monitoring, double-crested cormorant nest counts and burn severity assessment at the 2005 Glacier Creek fire on Tustumena Lake. The following report details and evaluates my experience. SURVEY OF INVASIVE, EXOTIC AND NOXIOUS FLORA FOR U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE AT KENAI NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, KENAI PENINSULA ALASKA An Internship Report Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Environmental Science Institute of Environmental Sciences By Caleb Raymond Slemmons Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2005 Advisor_____________________________ Dr. Thomas O. Crist Advisor_____________________________ Dr. Adolph M. Greenberg Advisor_____________________________ Dr. Mark M. Boardman TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction........................................................................................................................................1 II. Background.......................................................................................................................................2 2.1 US Fish and Wildlife Service ....................................................................................................2 2.2 Kenai Peninsula and Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.............................................................3 III. Planning and Implementation of Invasive, Exotic and Noxious Flora Survey for KENWR ....5 3.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................................5 3.2 Background.................................................................................................................................6 3.3 List of Exotic Flora for Alaska and the Kenai Peninsula.........................................................9 3.4 Use of Landscape Monitoring Efforts for Occurrence of Exotic Flora ................................10 3.5 Research, Planning and Implementation of Vegetation Surveys ..........................................11 3.51 AKEPIC (Alaska Exotic Plant Information Clearinghouse)...........................................11 3.52 BAER (Burn Area Emergency Rehabilitation)................................................................11 3.53 WIMS (Weed Information Management System) National Refuge System Test Pilot 12 IV. Dendrochronological Analysis of Historical Refuge Cabins.....................................................14 4.1 Background and Introduction..................................................................................................14 4.2 Methods.....................................................................................................................................16 4.3 Results & Discussion ...............................................................................................................17 V. Other Technician Activities ..........................................................................................................22 5.1 Snowmachine Monitoring........................................................................................................22 5.2 Double-crested Cormorant Productivity Surveys...................................................................24 5.3 Burn Severity Assessment of 2004 Glacier Creek Fire .........................................................25 VI. Conclusion & Evaluation.............................................................................................................26 VII. References ...................................................................................................................................28 APPENDIX A - Survey Plan of Exotic, Noxious and Invasive Flora…………………………………………31 B - Invasive Flora of the Kenai Peninsula Brochure…………………………………………….86 C - BAER Protocols for Assessment of Fire-related Introduction of Exotic and Invasive Flora.92 ii TABLE OF TABLES Table 1 – KENWR historical cabin construction dates determined by dendrochronological analysis Table 2 - Summary of deployment dates, retrieval dates, and total number of snowmachine detections at 5 selected trail locations on the southern Kenai Peninsula, February 2005. iii TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1 – The 16 Alaskan National Wildlife Refuges Figure 2 - Stages of plant invasion from Hobbs & Humphries (1995) Figure 3 - Recorded extent of exotic and invasive flora for Alaska from AKEPIC (2004) Figure 4 - Records of exotic flora from LTEMP sampling grid Figure 5 - WIMS desktop interface in MS Access Figure 6 - The Harry Johnson Cabin, dated to 1925 Figure 7 – Assemblage of a master chronology and dating of samples of unknown age Figure 8 - Velmex sliding-bench micrometer for making tree ring-width meaurements Figure 9 - Using a metal detector to retrieve TRAFx snowmachine sensor. Figure 10 - Double-crested cormorant nesting success at Skilak Lake, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska 1982-2005 Figure 11 - Pre and Post-fire LANDSAT7 Images of Glacier Creek Fire 2004 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to John Morton (Supervisory Biologist) for the tremendous opportunity to intern at the Kenai Refuge and Refuge staff for all the help and interest in the project. Ed Berg and Gary Titus for good discussion and sharing of your knowledge and also Mark Laker for technical support. Thanks also to Hansel Klausner (Homer Soil and Water Conservation District) and Janice Chumley (University of Alaska Fairbanks Agricultural Extension) for early assistance in planning and helping me to feel welcome in such an overwhelmingly massive place. Thanks to my committee members, Dr. Tom Crist, Dr. Adolph Greenberg and Dr. Mark Boardman for all their help, mentoring and guidance. Thanks also to the Institute of Environmental Sciences office staff, Betty Haven and Christine Ingham for much appreciated technical support. Finally, thanks to my family and friends for your continual support and encouragement. Special thanks to my grandparents: Harold and Martha Barker, Elza and Cora Slemmons. Your encouragement and inspiration has been a constant throughout - this degree is dedicated to you. v I. Introduction I began an internship with the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge (KENWR) on the Kenai Peninsula in Southcentral Alaska in February 2005. The KENWR is part of the 93 million acre Wildlife Refuge System maintained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the U.S. Department of the Interior. Their core mission is to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. I completed my term in July, fulfilling a partial requirement for the Masters of Environmental Science degree at Miami University’s (Oxford, Ohio) Institute of Environmental Science. As a Biological Technician, I was responsible for a variety of tasks. However, my internship was primarily focused on drafting, planning and implementation of a Refuge survey of exotic and invasive species of terrestrial, vascular flora. Drafting the plan to implement surveys for exotic and invasive flora at KENWR involved the following major steps: background research and literature review, collection of exotic plant records for the Kenai Peninsula, analysis of existing vegetation datasets and finally research, planning and implementation of vegetation surveys. In addition, I also worked substantially on a project to date historical Refuge cabins using dendrochronological analysis of cabin log cross-sections. Other various duties included snowmachine (snowmobile) trail use monitoring, productivity nest counts of gull and double- crested cormorant nests on Skilak Lake islands and burn severity assessment of the 2005 Glacier Creek fire. 1 II. Background 2.1 US Fish and Wildlife Service Last year, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) celebrated a century of conservation efforts through the National Wildlife Refuge system. Originally established as the Bureau of Biological Survey and merged with the Bureau of Fisheries – USFWS was created and brought under the Department of Interior in 1940. The first wildlife refuge was established by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 on Pelican Island in Florida. The USFWS now maintains over five hundred Wildlife Refuges nationwide. It is also responsible for listing of endangered species through administration of the Endangered Species Act (1973) and maintains almost 70 National Fish Hatcheries. The National Wildlife Refuge system has protected habitat for countless species of migratory waterfowl over the past century and continues to work towards their core mission: to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. Figure 1 – The 16 Alaskan National Wildlife Refuges 2 Alaska has a wealth of public land including 16 National Wildlife Refuges (Figure